Month: May 2010

Time Warner cable not going along with US Copyright Group (trolling) for IP addresses. http://bit.ly/d9G4ZZ

US Copyright Group are an organization that files massive John Doe subpoenas for IP addresses of alleged file sharers. Even given that an IP address does not identify any given user and this approach has led to massive embarrassment when done by the RIAA, the reason Time Warner Cable are not going along is because of the massive burden being placed upon the cable company, along with dubious legality of the subpoenas.

The ISP has now asked the court to quash the subpoena for three reasons.

First, because US Copyright Group lawyer Tom Dunlap “has now simply reneged” on an agreement that he worked out with TWC to manage the flow of subpoenas.

Second, the entire approach to these lawsuits may be invalid. Filing lawsuits can be expensive; Most federal courts charge a $350 filing fee per case, along with a new set of paperwork. Each case also creates another docket to keep track of, making thousands of cases an administrative nightmare.

Instead of going this route, plaintiffs have gone the RIAA route, simply filing mass lawsuits against groups of “John Does,” in some cases by the thousands. But, says TWC, channeling its inner Ray Beckerman, “It is not evident from the complaint in this case that there is anything common to the 2,094 defendants that would justify joining them in a single litigation… Courts facing these identical circumstances have repeatedly held that a plaintiff may not join in a single action multiple defendants who have allegedly downloaded or facilitated the download of copyrighted material at different times and locations.

Adobe’s Big Peer-to-Peer Plans http://bit.ly/b5FXwZ P2P Offload distribution costs to users’ bandwidth.

Another opportunity for Adobe to profit from those using Flash for distribution, reducing costs for many content owners.

Cable TV was created to sell more TVs. http://bit.ly/cAhDSx Talk about unintendec consequences. Guest blogger Craig Engle Senior VP from SyFy on Boing Boing has written a really interesting series all week on why shows get produced and others don’t; why shows get cancelled and other insights into the mind of a network executive.

Walson connected the mountain antennae to his appliance store via a cable and modified signal boosters. In June of 1948, John Walson connected the mountain antennae to both his store and several of his customers’ homes that were located along the cable path, starting the nation’s first CATV system.

Mick jagger says that record labels no longer pay money to artists (and only did for 25 years) http://bit.ly/cVWDuY

The article has a lot of background to the Stones, the Exile on Main Street album and his thoughts on Internet distribution:

I’m talking about the internet.

But that’s just one facet of the technology of music. Music has been aligned with technology for a long time. The model of records and record selling is a very complex subject and quite boring, to be honest.

Well, it’s all changed in the last couple of years. We’ve gone through a period where everyone downloaded everything for nothing and we’ve gone into a grey period it’s much easier to pay for things – assuming you’ve got any money.

His comments about record labels and their “support” for artists are much more interesting:

I am quite relaxed about it. But, you know, it is a massive change and it does alter the fact that people don’t make as much money out of records.

But I have a take on that – people only made money out of records for a very, very small time. When The Rolling Stones started out, we didn’t make any money out of records because record companies wouldn’t pay you! They didn’t pay anyone!

Then, there was a small period from 1970 to 1997, where people did get paid, and they got paid very handsomely and everyone made money. But now that period has gone.

So if you look at the history of recorded music from 1900 to now, there was a 25 year period where artists did very well, but the rest of the time they didn’t.

Reputation vs. Branding http://bit.ly/cnV5vA Doc Searls on why reputation is more important than branding.

Branding has jumped the shark. The meme is stale. Worn out. Post-peak. If branding were a show on Fox, it would be cancelled next week.

He goes on to make the case that what’s really important is reputation. Without reputation the words around the brand won’t stand scrutiny.

Two points there. First, it’s hard to re-phrase reputation as brand, no matter how you put it. Second, branding is not positioning. By that I mean it would be easier to make positioning statements about any of those companies than to make a branding statement.

That’s because brands are nothing but statements. At best they are a well-known and trusted badge, name or both. At worst they’re a paint job, a claim, a rationalization or an aspiration. Branding can help a reputation, but it can’t make one. Real work does that. Accomplishment over time does that.

Pretty much anything Doc Searls writes is worth a read.

Vidler launches HTML5 beta – another distributor gets on the HTML5 bandwagon.

Adding HTML5 support means iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users can now watch Viddler-hosted videos. Previously, they couldn’t watch Viddler content because the devices don’t support Adobe’s Flash platform.

5 Steps to the Compounding Effect of Business Blogging http://bit.ly/a5d9Sr In short – more for google to index, do something shareworthy.

I’ve long been an advocate of a business blog, although I chose to substitute a personal blog with some peripheral reference to my various business interests. Whether here or on IntelligentAssistance.com the content would be the same: useful links pointing to things of interest to me, and occasional essay pieces on subjects I want to explore in depth.

Blogs feed to Google very well because they are a constant source of fresh, relevant information: just what Google loves.

Full list of Avid Console Commands http://bit.ly/bwvBBo For command line junkies a lot of custom power.

You con’t have to rely on the list. You can ‘help command” in the console and hit Return to get the list, but the text version is easier to refer to.